Elderly patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) are about 35 percent more likely to die within five years of leaving the hospital if they develop an infection during their stay.
This is according to a study published in the January 2015 issue of the American Journal of Infection Control which found that preventing two of the most common health care-associated infections - bloodstream infections caused by central lines and pneumonia caused by ventilators - can increase the odds that these patients survive and reduce the cost of their care by more than $150,000.
The study looked at outcomes for 17,537 elderly Medicare patients admitted to 31 hospitals in 2002 to assess the cost and effectiveness of infection prevention efforts. The researchers used an additional five years of Medicare claims data to assess the long-term outcomes and health costs attributed to health care-associated infections.
While 57 percent of all the elderly ICU patients died within five years, the researchers found that infections made death more likely. For those who developed central line-associated bloodstream infections, or CLABSI, 75 percent died within five years, as did 77 percent of those who developed ventilator-associated pneumonia, or VAP.
Effective prevention programs for CLABSI resulted in an estimated gain of 15.55 years of life on average for all patients treated in the ICU, the study found.
On average, the ongoing cost of running an infection prevention program in the ICU is about $145,000, the study found. Prevention efforts reduced ICU costs by $174,713 per patient for each instance of CLABSI, and by $163,090 for VAP.
"Any death from preventable infections is one too many," said senior study author Patricia Stone, director of the Center for Health Policy at Columbia University School of Nursing. "We've known for decades what works to prevent infections and save lives. Now, our study shows just how much money can be saved by investing in prevention."
"This evidence points definitively to the value of investing in infection prevention," added lead study author Andrew Dick, senior economist at RAND Corporation.
ICU, American Journal of Infection Control, Patricia Stone, US
